Memorable Changes in Technology

[faraway saint]

Just flicking through Netflix and it occured to me that in my almost 64 years there's been many things that have been memorable as time has passed.

One of the early things was out first colour TV, the first programme that I remember watching was Up Pompei and just being amazed at colour. 

No real idea when, can't be arsed Googling, too much searching goes on, I'll just stick with my memory of Frankie Howard in glorious colour. 

[StanleySaint]

When you think about it, it is amazing what has  been developed since the 50s, particularly in cars, from being able to do your own simple servicing tl opening the bonnet and not knowing what's under that huge cover that used to just cover the air filter! We've got a thread running on electric cars so that's another area and I read an article the other day about airless tyres and how the manufacturers are investigating how they might work! The ingenuity of the human mind is quite staggering, I'm sure we have people that will be able to comment more eloquently than me about the advances in computing too, which is another quite staggering area of advancement!

[faraway saint]

7 minutes ago, StanleySaint said:

When you think about it, it is amazing what has  been developed since the 50s, particularly in cars, from being able to do your own simple servicing tl opening the bonnet and not knowing what's under that huge cover that used to just cover the air filter! We've got a thread running on electric cars so that's another area and I read an article the other day about airless tyres and how the manufacturers are investigating how they might work! The ingenuity of the human mind is quite staggering, I'm sure we have people that will be able to comment more eloquently than me about the advances in computing too, which is another quite staggering area of advancement!

As I'm not into cars that much most of the changes have went right over my head but one thing I recall is that the mileage used to be very important, remember "clocking" was a thing, nowadays there seems to be less focus on the miles as cars "SEEM" to go on for much longer.

Suppose this would have an adverse effect on smaller garages with less work needing done. 

Anyhow, mobile phones, jeezo, imagine our grandparents seeing these now. 

[WeeBud]

11 hours ago, faraway saint said:

Just flicking through Netflix and it occured to me that in my almost 64 years there's been many things that have been memorable as time has passed.

One of the early things was out first colour TV, the first programme that I remember watching was Up Pompei and just being amazed at colour. 

No real idea when, can't be arsed Googling, too much searching goes on, I'll just stick with my memory of Frankie Howard in glorious colour. 

Dad got our first colour TV for the 1978 World Cup from Rediffusion which came with a free Adidas Tango. Our house was packed with neighbours to watch the games and the garden was packed with kids playing football the whole summer long.

[Callum Gilhooley]

36 minutes ago, WeeBud said:

Dad got our first colour TV for the 1978 World Cup from Rediffusion which came with a free Adidas Tango. Our house was packed with neighbours to watch the games and the garden was packed with kids playing football the whole summer long.

We used to rent a TV from the place in the Piazza .  At one point we had a box on the back into which we deposited coins to watch the telly  !!!  🙄😂

This is already starting to sound like a Monty Python sketch 😂

[faraway saint]

1 minute ago, Callum Gilhooley said:

We used to rent a TV from the place in the Piazza .  At one point we had a box on the back into which we deposited coins to watch the telly  !!!  🙄😂

This is already starting to sound like a Monty Python sketch 😂

Our electric, or maybe gas, had the wee box you filled up with cash but we always got a refund, seemed quite a lot in them days. 

[Callum Gilhooley]

Anyroad, back to changes in tech. 
 

im typing this on an I-pad on which I can browse the internet, take and store thousands of pictures somewhere on the cloud & listen to millions of music tracks.   Who’s have thought that 30 years ago ? 

[faraway saint]

1 minute ago, Callum Gilhooley said:

Anyroad, back to changes in tech. 
 

im typing this on an I-pad on which I can browse the internet, take and store thousands of pictures somewhere on the cloud & listen to millions of music tracks.   Who’s have thought that 30 years ago ? 

Aye, music, as a big fan I spent plenty on albums, cassettes, not to much CD's as I always thought they were overpriced.

Then, boom, 1999, my first PC and Napster.

Although dial up (remember the screeching noise) was slow, 20 minutes to download ONE song, through time I downloaded thousands of songs.

I justify that as I spent a fortune, probably getting ripped off, over the years it was, and still is, payback time. 

[StanleySaint]

Yes music was another one that I thought of, vinyl, cds, mini disc, mp3, mp4, DAB radio, shed load of advances and retro fit in the case of vinyl, always loved the artwork on record sleeves that became a bit less important with cds but possibly my heavy metal and prog rock tastes made that seem more important.

[faraway saint]

2 minutes ago, StanleySaint said:

Yes music was another one that I thought of, vinyl, cds, mini disc, mp3, mp4, DAB radio, shed load of advances and retro fit in the case of vinyl, always loved the artwork on record sleeves that became a bit less important with cds but possibly my heavy metal and prog rock tastes made that seem more important.

The record sleeves, especially if you got words with them, was a big draw for me and another reason CD's didn't match it.

As a big Elton John fan he, almost, always provided the lyrics, saved me making up my own. 

[ianmac]

My granny was born before the Wright Brothers first flight and died a good few years after men walked on the moon.

[Scott-Leeds]

Just flicking through Netflix and it occured to me that in my almost 64 years there's been many things that have been memorable as time has passed.
One of the early things was out first colour TV, the first programme that I remember watching was Up Pompei and just being amazed at colour. 
No real idea when, can't be arsed Googling, too much searching goes on, I'll just stick with my memory of Frankie Howard in glorious colour. 

Does someone introducing Fricky to the internet count ?

[faraway saint]

1 minute ago, Scott-Leeds said:

Does someone introducing Fricky to the internet count ?

Everything has a down side. 🙉

[faraway saint]

Central heating, our first flat in Neilston Road only had a gas fire in the lounge.

The winter was murder, I used to get up, run through and turn the fire on full blast, dive back into bed for 10 minutes to let it heat up the room a wee bit.

One winter was so cold we had thick ice INSIDE the window.

Got it easy nowadays, heating kicks in before I get up and nice and toasty throughout the winter. 

[Tommy]

19 hours ago, faraway saint said:

Just flicking through Netflix and it occured to me that in my almost 64 years there's been many things that have been memorable as time has passed.

One of the early things was out first colour TV, the first programme that I remember watching was Up Pompei and just being amazed at colour. 

No real idea when, can't be arsed Googling, too much searching goes on, I'll just stick with my memory of Frankie Howard in glorious colour. 

Working manual machine to going to CNC is certainly something you and i will know about.

What a CNC m/c can throw out now is amazing, considering how many different m/c a lump of metal would have to go through in the past to get to the finish product. 

[faraway saint]

1 hour ago, Tommy said:

Working manual machine to going to CNC is certainly something you and i will know about.

What a CNC m/c can throw out now is amazing, considering how many different m/c a lump of metal would have to go through in the past to get to the finish product. 

Indeed.

The first CNC I seen was a wee demo machine, arrived in Babcocks in the back of a lorry, produced small chess pieces in no time at all.

Material was aluminium for demo purposes but it was jaw dropping at the time.

Then they introduced Swedeturn machines as I recall.

As much as I was interested it meant you had to do shifts, which was a deal breaker for me, I stuck to the manual machines until I was made redundant and realised CNC was the only way ahead.

Nowadays, aye, I worked a 5 axis machine a couple of years ago, once you started going into the 5th axis the programme lost me, just hoped the CAM system & programmer were spot on and keep fingers crossed. 

Edited June 18, 2022 by faraway saint

[StanleySaint]

2 hours ago, faraway saint said:

Central heating, our first flat in Neilston Road only had a gas fire in the lounge.

The winter was murder, I used to get up, run through and turn the fire on full blast, dive back into bed for 10 minutes to let it heat up the room a wee bit.

One winter was so cold we had thick ice INSIDE the window.

Got it easy nowadays, heating kicks in before I get up and nice and toasty throughout the winter. 

Our council house in Glenburn regularly had ice on the metal frames as well as the windows inside in the depth of winter!

[Tommy]

49 minutes ago, faraway saint said:

Indeed.

The first CNC I seen was a wee demo machine, arrived in Babcocks in the back of a lorry, produced small chess pieces in no time at all.

Material was aluminium for demo purposes but it was jaw dropping at the time.

Then they introduced Swedeturn machines as I recall.

As much as I was interested it meant you had to do shifts, which was a deal breaker for me, I stuck to the manual machines until I was made redundant and realised CNC was the only way ahead.

Nowadays, aye, I worked a 5 axis machine a couple of years ago, once you started going into the 5th axis the programme lost me, just hoped the CAD system & programmer were spot on and keep fingers crossed. 

There were 1 Swedeturn 18 M/C still in action when the place finally closed in Jan 2017.

Around 35 yrs it lasted   

I was working a Gidding & Lewis VTL that was 36yrs old when the place closed.

Spent 5 days in Arbroath learning about it in 1981 when G&L had a base there.

[faraway saint]

11 minutes ago, Tommy said:

There were 1 Swedeturn 18 M/C still in action when the place finally closed in Jan 2017.

Around 35 yrs it lasted   

I was working a Gidding & Lewis VTL that was 36yrs old when the place closed.

Spent 5 days in Arbroath learning about it in 1981 when G&L had a base there.

Aye, Frasers was still, just, on the go when I moved up here, I moved late 1989.

All gone now mate, as you know, cracking machines, world famous and lasted, as you say, for years. 

[Wilbur]

3-D printers. Wow, who even imagined such a thing was possible ?

And the advances in technology behind weather forecasting are amazing. Thirty years ago the Met Office forecasts were a joke, they could barely predict that the sun would rise in the east. Nowadays we have forecasts that can reasonably predict that it will start raining in Causeyside Street at 7.45 am in four days time.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Wilbur said:

And the advances in technology behind weather forecasting are amazing. Thirty years ago the Met Office forecasts were a joke, they could barely predict that the sun would rise in the east. Nowadays we have forecasts that can reasonably predict that it will start raining in Causeyside Street at 7.45 am in four days time.

The forecasts are only better because of computing power. I actually think the forecasts locally are not as good as when there were regional weather centres with a lot of local knowledge. Plus they have obviously gone down hill since I left.

[StanleySaint]

Despite the supposed accuracy of the forecast the BBC still onsist on showing the highlight for the week ahead for Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and London, not exactly representative of the national coverage!

[faraway saint]

Games consoles and the graphics, when my kids were young the Sega Mega drive was one of the best.

The cost of the games, I'm going back to the early/mid 90's approx, was outrageous, £55 - £65 for the top games. (Sonic, Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat)

At the time they were more than decent, albeit very "2D".

We used to have some great boys nights playing PGA Golf, graphics were not great but very playable. 

[StanleySaint]

Ok I'll go full saddo on this one, I still have my Megadrive safely stored away, my brother and I started off with a ZX Spectrum like so many others, I currently have a PS1, PS2 and a further PS2 (smaller sized version), PS3, PSP and a PS4, the latter I played 2K21 golf game on yesterday. Was waiting for the new Touring Cars game that was supposed to be coming out this year but that seems to have been shelved. I'm sure a few people enjoyed the TOCA games of the past. Have always enjoyed the sports games never one for plstform games much though.

[faraway saint]

16 minutes ago, StanleySaint said:

Ok I'll go full saddo on this one, I still have my Megadrive safely stored away, my brother and I started off with a ZX Spectrum like so many others, I currently have a PS1, PS2 and a further PS2 (smaller sized version), PS3, PSP and a PS4, the latter I played 2K21 golf game on yesterday. Was waiting for the new Touring Cars game that was supposed to be coming out this year but that seems to have been shelved. I'm sure a few people enjoyed the TOCA games of the past. Have always enjoyed the sports games never one for platform games much though.

^^^^^^ Full saddo right enough.